Staff Room Privileges At Last (open)

[Kanda Shao]

Orange juice had never been quite so exciting. Every time Kanda had passed the staff room since realising that she wanted to teach she'd promised herself that one day she'd be able to go in for more than "Er... there's trouble out here," or "I swear I didn't freeze her! I don't even have ice powers!" Now that she had become a teacher, she had finally fulfilled that promise to herself. It was extremely satisfying, too. The short walk to the table to set up her laptop had felt not unlike a red carpet walk, or maybe closer to achieving the next belt in >insert martial art form here<, and she proudly took her first sip of her juice as she sat down in her chair.

Better than she'd imagined? Yep! Was she over-reacting? Probably! To be fair, she had achieved her goals, and now she got to teach at the school that really made her who she was. How many other people could say that? Well... other than the other teachers who had attended Hammel in their teens... but her being able to say it was different. No, really, it was. To her, at least. Much, much more special.

She didn't really have time to bask in the glow of her successes, however. Finally being able to hang around in there after years of hard work and determination wasn't her only reason for going in the first place. She needed somewhere other than the lab to sit and go over lesson plans and pretend to not be nervous about her next classes. And perhaps get talking to some of her new co-workers!

And, of course, to drink her orange juice away from the students. That was arguably the most important part.

[Evgeny Demidov]

Evgeny rushed to the staff lounge that morning as soon as he got out of the cab. He was amazed at his own clumsiness and cursed inside his head as many times as he could in the several languages he knew. He had the fingers on his right hand crossed as he rapidly walked through the halls. A couple of students had greeted him along the way, but the worrying didn't let him stop to say hi and ask how their days had been as he usually did, so he only managed to put up a very honest smile and thumbs up to all of them. He felt bad of behaving so rude, according to him, but time was crucial in this particular little mission.

As soon as he entered the room, he focused his power and searched between all the objects in the room in the mental image he now had of the staff lounge. He was just a man standing in the middle of the lounge with his eyes closed and a preoccupied face. No, no, no, no, no. He finally sighed after a minute and opened his eyes. It was time for plan B.

"Hey." He approached the young girl going over sheets of paper in one of the tables. "Have you err seen an iPhone around here?" He had bought the thing just a couple of days ago and he had already lost it. "I think I left it here last night. I'm not sure."

[Kanda Shao]

In all honesty, Kanda had zoned out majorly by the time the other teacher entered the staff room. Oddly enough, she had zoned out thinking about people coming into the room and how she would assault them with friendliness greet them and maybe even make some friends. And she was working on her laptop and sorting through files, and she was drinking orange juice. Her defense if questioned about not paying attention to what went on around her was clearly going to be a rant about multitasking and how amazing she was at it. Provided she didn't have to come out of her dreamlike state while she did so.

"Hey."

Immediately, she stood up, a sudden shock of some unknown emotion that was fairly close to dread or fear running up her spine. It was as though she had completely forgotten that she was allowed to be there as staff, and indeed she started getting ready to explain herself. And then she realised what she was doing. She smiled, running a hand through her hair, which had been left down outside of the labs.

"Oh wow, for a second there I think I forgot that I'm a teacher," she said through soft giggles, a blush rising in her cheeks. "I used to come here when I was a student and -- you know what? Never mind." Now, what had he asked her? Oh! iPhone!

"Oh, no, I haven't seen one. Let me help you look!" Lifting up everything that could be lifted to take a peek underneath, she continued, "Do you remember what you were doing with it last? Where you were? You sure it was even in here?"

[Evgeny Demidov]

Evgeny giggled back when the fellow teacher did so. Why? No real reason. He even wondered about it for a second or two as she kept talking, it really made no sense and he was still worried about his iPhone. Remembering the probable sudden loss of his money, the giggling went away and his face went back into a rather worried status.

The girl had a point. He hadn't thought much about it. What was he doing the last time he remembered having his cellphone? His lips twisted aside a bit as tried to remember.

"I'm not actually sure." He finally said. "I think I was playing Angry Birds." He loved that game. "I hate those damned pigs." He took a seat next to the woman. "I'm already halfway through the game, I believe. It's so hard, though. But there's a group of seniors training for some soccer tournament so I just let them do it in class and step off to play it." His worried look was replaced by his usual slightly grinned face. "I sometimes play this game where you have to make cars crash too." Ev eyed her orange juice. He now wanted orange juice. "Oh and then there's this game where you have to roll monkeys that are inside a glass thingie sphere. It's crazy, why would a monkey be inside a glass bubble, right? I thought so too, but it's so good." Did I have breakfast today? "I think I'm talking to much. What about you?"

His eyes rolled clockwise. Wasn't I doing something?

"Oh God, yes, my iPhone." He pictured himself crying continuous streams of tears like those cartoons he had been watching lately. "I just bought it like nothing ago." His face plummeted to the desk. "What am I going to do?"

[Kanda Shao]

"You know, I haven't played that yet!" Then again, she didn't have an iPhone. Or the patience for games like that. That didn't mean she could be excited about trying to play for at least five minutes.

"Yeah, I heard it was kind of hard - one of my friends back in Sydney, oh my god, it's all she talks about sometimes! Her Facebook! 'Angry Birds' this and 'Farmville' that!" Taking a drink of her orange juice, she grinned as she listened to him describing the games he played, giggling and exclaiming 'What?' in confusion at the monkey-in-a-bubble. If all the teachers were like this, she wouldn't complain.

"Oh not at all," she reassured him, looking under cushions and seats. "If it's not you talking, it'll be me, so, gab away!"

But then his mood swiftly changed. Silly thing really should have kept an eye on his phone. Still, she couldn't help but feel a little sympathy.

"Come on, cheer up!" Grabbing another glass, she held it out to him, shaking her bottle of orange juice, her way of offering him some as she topped up her own glass. Maybe if he had something to drink he'd focus better. "We'll find it somewhere. If you usually play Angry Birds in class, maybe it'll be there?" It made sense, right?

[Evgeny Demidov]

"OH GOD Farmville!" Evgeny immediately exclaimed as she mentioned it. "I love that game. What's your Facebook name? You have got to see my farm. I've got these green alien cows that are just so awesome."

He immediately reached his pocket to get his cellphone, so he could add her as friends, but upon reaching it, remembered he was actually looking for it. Aww. It's not like Evgeny didn't have the money to buy another one, because he had it, but it was that he felt rather useless and dissapointed with himself by not being able take care of his belongings, specially one that he liked it. He was also worried he could lose his advance on his iPhone's games, obviously.

"You're right." Evgeny sat up rightly again after the fellow teacher gave him some comforting words, an idea to where to look for his device and offered him orange juice. Juice! "Thanks." He let out one of those heartwarming, honest and innocent smiles before he started to drink from the glass. "A friend of mine once said that you know God exists when you drunk orange juice, you know." It tastes so good. "He's dead now. But yeah, anyway, maybe it's still in the gym. Oh I hope no one has found it and taken it yet."

[Kanda Shao]

Good grief, this guy was up and down like a yo-yo! It wasn't that it bothered her; quite the opposite really. It was amusing but she didn't want to say that out loud or start laughing for no reason. She wasn't exactly the queen of tact but this was her first day and she didn't want to make any enemies. "Green alien cows? Oh man, that sounds weird; I need to start playing Farmville."

He reached for his pocket, apparently expecting to find his phone, and again his little face just fell. Aww Well, at least the orange juice could cheer him up a bit. "Hey, like I said, don't worry. We'll find it; you just gotta retrace your steps, right?"

He did brighten up a bit after the juice, which was something of a relief, really. She didn't want his... condition... to get any worse. Had to keep him thinking bright and positive! "No worries," she said, glad that something was making him smile again. "Oh... that so?" It was uncharacteristic of her to practically ignore such a silly statement as 'you know God exists when orange juice', but she was trying to help him find his phone and didn't want the rest of their search to be awkward. That, and she didn't want to make him... cry or anything.

Putting her laptop and papers away in her bag, she got ready to leave whenever he was ready to go. "I'm sure it'll be right where you left it," she reassured him brightly. "We just gotta retrace your steps and I'm positive we'll find it."